Amanda Ellerby
Amanda Ellerby was born June 5, 2000 in small town, Willow Falls, on the same day as her best friend, Leonard "Leo" Fitzpatrick. Amanda makes her first appearance as the narrator and co-main character, along with Leo, in 11 Birthdays. In this book, Amanda is eleven and in the fifth grade. She and Leo, who are about to celebrate their 11th birthday, but are no longer friends after Leo said something to hurt Amanda's feelings. Throughout the book, she and Leo become best friends again after a strange occurence involving Angelina D'Angelo, the oldest lady in town. The next time Amanda appears is in the next book, Finally. She meets a girl named Rory and decides to help her after Angelina decides to teach Rory that you don't always get what you want. In this book Amanda is still eleven and best friends with Leo. She makes her next apearence in 13 Gifts shortly after her thirteenth birthday, and befriends Tara Brennan, who has recently arrived in Willow Falls and has been sent by Angelina to randomly collect 13 gifts. She is the narrator of the next book, The Last Present, where she and Leo must embark on yet another crazy journey together. She will make her last appearance along with the rest of Team Grace in Graceful in which she will be helping Grace with her powers and Co Narrating. She is best friends with Leo and has great friendships with Rory Swenson, David Goldberg, Tara Breannan, and later on Connor and Grace Kelly. Relationships Leo Fitzpatrick: Amanda and Leo were both born on June 5 in Willow Falls, and have been best friends their whole lives, minus one year in fourth grade, when Amanda overheard Leo insulting her to his friends and avoided him for a year. The following year, Amanda and Leo reconciled after they were forced to relive their 11th birthday over and over again, thanks to an enchantment inherited from their great grandparents. The two then became closer than ever and put a stop to the enchantment together. Both Amanda and Leo appear consistently throughout the next book, Finally, where they each have a couple conversations with Rory that leave her confused. The two appear again in 13 Gifts, where they are now not communicating verbally and are instead using blackboards for an unknown reason. They both are eager to help Tara find the items on her list. Tara assumed they were a couple, but then decided they were just best friends. In The Last Present they start showing romantic attractions like looking at each other and hand holding. Leo also admitted to Amanda that he liked her forever and wanted to kiss her since they were four, and even younger than that. He ended up kissing Amanda when they were at the beach. In Graceful, things get akward between the two, especially when Amanda went on a coffee "date" with another guy. But at the vortex, she admits she collects things that remind her of Leo, and she gives him a piece of glass that she says reminds her of his eyes. And when she's in the vortex, she sees her future, and she sees that Leo becomes her husband and they have many kids and grandkids. The kids play a video of Amanda and Leo's moments, ending with both of their first steps. By the end of the video, Amanda is crying quite hard. When she is about to leave, future Leo kisses her forehead and proclaims his love to her by saying,"Amanda Ellerby Fizpatrick, I will always keep walking towards you." When she goes back to the present, she takes Leo's hands, and says the same thing to him, only replacing her name with his. Kylie Ellerby: Kylie is her older sister who is noted to be flirty, pretty, and spiteful towards Amanda. Amanda says that there once was a time where they both got along, but now all Kylie cares about is her diary, boys, and her friends at school. They do become closer after 11 Birthdays. She never seems to do much to help Amanda until 13 Gifts. Rory Swenson: Rory and Amanda are just acquaintances in Finally, but soon become great friends,as read in 13 Gifts. In Finally, Rory runs into Amanda a few times throughout the book, and have conversations that Rory find very odd. It is revealed in The Last Present ''that Amanda and Leo became extras in the movie to keep an eye on Rory, because they knew she was associated with Angelina. Being the only girls in their group (Amanda, Rory, Leo, and David), they constantly step aside from the boys to have "Girl Talks" which are usually code for "We're talking about Angelina, but David can't know because he wouldn't understand". That said, Leo likes to jump in on their "Girl Talks" because he knows about Angelina, too. Amanda and Rory appear to be best friends by the end of the Last Present. David Goldberg: Amanda meets David in ''11 Birthdays, when he bursts out of his classroom in yellow and black (earning him the nickname Bee Boy) in need of a drawing of the periodic table, which Amanda provides him with. The two become close friends in 13 Gifts. Amanda feels guilty that David has no idea what is going on with Angelina, and she picks up on the fact that he likes Tara. Angelina's antics are revealed to him at the end of The Last Present, when he is standing in front of Angelina's shop with Amanda, Leo, Tara, and Rory and sees that the shop is, in fact, quite full, contrary to his past visual experiences. Tara Brennan: Amanda meets Tara in 13 Gifts, when Tara visits Willow Falls temporarily after getting suspended from school. The two become great friends, and Amanda and the gang help Tara with her Angelina problem. Amanda was very happy when she found out Tara would be moving to Willow Falls. Parents: She says that she likes her parents because her mom isn't too uptight and her dad isn't too big of a jokester. Stephanie: Stephanie is known as her best friend in "11 Birthdays" after Amanda and Leo stopped talking. She was friends with Amanda and Leo since they were six, and all 3 of them became best friends, but when they stopped talking, Stephanie chose to take Amanda's side and became her new best friend. Stephanie is great at gymnastics and is kind of girly. Ruby: Amanda says that Ruby was her friend when she was little, but one year Amanda was the only girl Ruby didn't invite to her birthday so she just assumed she didn't like her. Unfortunately, Ruby and Stephanie are also great friends and so she's forced to hang out with her. Despite Ruby's rude comments, Amanda tries to be as nice as she can to Ruby (maybe the only reason Ruby does not like Amanda is because she might like Leo). Connor and Grace Kelly: Since she has only known them for a little while she is not that close with them. Appearance Amanda is 4'10" in 11 Birthdays, and then around 5'0" in Finally, then 5'1" in 13 Gifts. She has frizzy blonde hair, tons of freckles, and bright starry green eyes. She has the good looks of her older sister Kylie Ellerby except with more noticeable quirks. She also doesn't wear anything fancy, her outfits usually consisting of a T-shirt and jeans. Traits She's very sweet, but can be sour when she wants to be. She is curious and loyal, always putting her friends needs before her. She also doesn't usually do girly stuff, since her best friend is a boy, but will occasionally do it. She doesn't go all out for anybody and is always being herself around everybody. She is more down-to-earth as well, as she doesn't care about straightening her hair even though Kylie offers her to borrow her straighter in 11 Birthdays.